Are you a Teacher who needs more Google?

If so, then this will be right up your alley. Via Stephen Downes' OLDaily newsletter, I learned that Mark Wagner has published the entire first issue of the Google Teacher Newsletter on his blog. If you want to subscribe to future newsletters in the series, simply visit http://www.google.com/educators and they'll be delivered directly to your inbox. That way you can monitor what Google is doing to entice teachers to use its products (*smile*).

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Google buys YouTube

A recent story on CBC's website shows that Google has purchased YouTube, the popular video hosting service, for a whopping $1.65 billion US. Is it just me or does this sound like a lot of money to buy such a small company that has not shown any profitability yet? Hmmm...Interesting. I've written about the potentially interesting pedagogical aspects of video file sharing services like Google Video and YouTube on this blog before. Obviously, the executives at Google also think YouTube has a huge upside. Will Google Video swallow YouTube? Or with they keep the widely publicized "YouTube" name? Stay tuned on what they do with YouTube and Google Video, and how they turn these video file sharing services into a money maker.

Hint: Yesterday YouTube stated it has recently signed deals with CBS, Universal Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment to distribute video content online. It signed a similar deal with Warner Music Group last month.

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